In between brief sprints to press conferences, stuffing down questionable food in the media center, and furiously typing away at our computers, we do find some time to actually mingle with automakers at the Detroit auto show. We caught up with Jaguar’s brand vice president for North America, Jeff Curry, at the company’s show stand to get the download on where Jag is headed in the next five years. Here’s what we learned:

Jaguar Small Sedan

After being bandied about for years, Jaguar’s small 3-series competitor will finally arrive sometime in 2015. It will go on sale in Europe before being introduced here in the States the following year. The sedan will ride on Jag’s new scaleable aluminum architecture that is being designed to accommodate all-wheel drive. (Keep in mind that the XF and XJ sedan weren’t designed to accommodate all-wheel drive, so the addition of four driven wheels surely was a costly alteration to their underpinnings.)

Mr. Curry didn’t divulge what we could expect to see under the unnamed sedan’s hood (it likely will be called “XE“), but Jaguar is building a new engine plant in the U.K. that will produce a new range of gas and diesel four-cylinders. We suspect that a turbo four would serve admirably as the sedan’s base engine, with perhaps a more powerful six also joining the mix. (The new engine facility can apparently build more than just fours, but Jaguar isn’t elaborating on that topic yet.) Regardless, Jag can’t get a 3-series competitor fast enough; the automaker is growing quickly, with a 41 percent increase in sales last year and an ongoing, massive marketing push. Plus, we’re told the new platform was designed to suit taller body styles—i.e., a crossover—another vehicle Jaguar desperately needs.

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Jaguar Sport Crossover

Speaking of crossovers, Jaguar brought its good-looking C-X17 concept to Detroit. While Curry says there still are no official plans to build it, we gather that it’s pretty much a done deal. Crossovers are where the money’s at these days, and Jaguar is now more than a decade late to the game. For now, Curry says the C-X17 is making the auto-show rounds so that Jag can gauge customer response. We’re told that, predictably, most everyone loves the concept and that the response has been “overwhelming.”

We asked Mr. Curry where Jaguar’s powerful and sonorous 5.0-liter V-8—available in every car it currently makes—fits into its future plans, and received an optimistic, if vague response: “We love the V-8.” We take this to mean that the eight isn’t going anywhere, despite the encroachment of turbo fours and supercharged sixes into Jaguar’s engine portfolio. Another reason enthusiasts shouldn’t be worried? Mr. Curry’s current ride is an F-type V-8 S, and it’s almost impossible not to love that thing’s exhaust note.